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Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Meet My Hartmann Bag

First of all, it's nice to be back blogging. It's been a difficult two weeks. I was suffering from an irritated achilles tendon (still a little sore) and between the strong pain meds and limited mobility I wasn't up to writing. Hope I haven't completely lost my readers but that's ok. It started out as a personal journal. Maybe that's how it'll end up.

But on to the subject - my bag. A few years ago I went to my local luggage store, Savinar, to get a new set of luggage. I told the salesperson that I wanted luggage that was tough. I didn't want handles or wheels breaking while I was on the road. She said, "Oh, if you want the Rolls Royce of luggage then you want Hartmann." I hated the way it looked. Like my friend, Doug, said, "It looks like something you'd pull down from Grandma's attic." That tweed, the logo, the shape, way too sixties, dowdy, whatever. Fast forward to last week. The handle broke off the Swiss Army bag I settled for so I was back at Savinar to get it fixed. I was also looking for a new laptop bag. I wandered over to the Hartmanns. The look had grown on me. I bought the laptop bag. I couldn't wait to hear the derision from the peanut gallery in Huntington Beach on Monday. And I wasn't disappointed. It was almost universally despised except for my friend Linda who swoons whenever she sees one roll by at the airport (She is having me buy one for her when I pick up my fixed Swiss Army bag). And my twentysomething cubicle neighbor, Lily, is starting to go , "Hmmmm..." as though the derision is beginning to pass and the thought of having something exclusive and secret before it becomes the next Filofax or Burberry's product is starting to gain appeal. It isn't as though Louis Vuitton or Ferragamo is better or worse but Hartmann is under the radar even though all the elements of coolness are there - high quality, retro, unknown, not made in a third world country. And they hardly advertise so the price isn't gobbled up by fancy ads.

6 Comments:

Hartman is cool - I had a Hartman for years but they changed the look and I don't quite like the new look - the next time you are in the market you should check out Floto luggage -- my friend Bob recommended them to me. They only sell online but you can return them if you don't like it and the prices are low because they sell direct. I had to exchange one and their service is great -- FYI.

I went over to Savinar looking for a roller bag bag about 1.5 years ago. Salesman tried to sell me a $300 bag made by Swiss Army. Told him a similar one sold at Costco costs $69.99. Mr. Salesman says the had many customers who complained that the Costco models fell apart. Instantly, the guy lost credibility with me. I ended up buying it from Costco and to this day it is the best luggage/briefcase biz (value for $) I have purchased. Went back to Costco a few months back to buy another one but they stopped selling them! Savinar is a rip off!